Automated estimation of a country where a client computer is configured to operate

• US 8,160,991 B2
• Filed: 07/08/2011
• Issued: 04/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Leffert, Jonathan B., Gautier, Patrice
• Primary Examiner(s): Chaki, Kakali
• Assistant Examiner(s): COUGHLAN, PETER D
• Application Number:
  US13/179,478
• Publication Number:
  US 20120016927A1
• Time in Patent Office: 284 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 706/47
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A method for automatically estimating a country where a client computer is configured to operate. The method gathers information of the client computer (e.g., GMT offset, time zone name, daylight savings status, desktop language, etc.) and estimates a country where the client computer is configured to operate using the gathered information and country estimation programming. The method may send information regarding the identity of the estimated country to a server and then receive information from the server based on the estimated country. In other embodiments, the gathered information is sent to the server and the server estimates the country where the client computer is configured to operate. In some embodiments, the country estimation programming comprises a rule engine implemented by rule programming. In some embodiments, the rule engine comprises a recursive rule program.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for estimating, by a computer server, a country in which a computing device is configured to operate, the computer program executable by a processor, the computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving system setting information from the computing device that does not expressly identify the country in which the computing device operates;

using the system setting information to identify a particular country as the country in which the computing device operates; and

from a set of products associated with a plurality of countries, identifying a subset of products that is associated with the identified particular country by excluding products that are not associated with the particular country from the set of products.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the set of products comprises different products that are available in different countries in the plurality of countries, wherein the subset of products comprises all products that are available in the identified particular country from the set of products.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for sending digital data related to the subset of products associated with the identified particular country to the computing device.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the system setting information comprises at least one of Greenwich Mean Time offset, time zone name, daylight savings status, and desktop language settings.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for identifying, from a set of data formats associated with the plurality of countries, a subset of data formats that is associated with the identified particular country by excluding data formats that are not associated with the particular country from the set of data formats.

6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein the set of data formats comprises a plurality of currency types associated with the plurality of countries, wherein the subset of data formats comprises a currency type associated with the particular country.

7. A method performed by a set of servers for estimating a country where a client computing device is configured to operate, the method comprising:

sending to the client computing device a set of country estimation programming instructions for the client computing device to automatically estimate the country in which the client computing device is configured to operate;

receiving, from the client computing device, information indicating the estimated country, the information indicating the estimated country derived by the client computing device by applying the country estimation programming instructions to a plurality of configuration settings of the client computing device;

identifying, from a set of products associated with a plurality of countries, a subset of products that is associated with the estimated country by excluding products that are not associated with the estimated country from the set of products; and

sending, to the client computing device, digital data related to the subset of products that the set of servers identified as associated with the estimated country.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising sending a plurality of rules for estimating the country to the client computing device, wherein at least one rule in the plurality of rules comprises an antecedent and an inference, wherein the inference is determined if the antecedent is determined to be true, wherein the country estimation programming instructions comprise a rule engine that processes the plurality of rules to estimate the country.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein at least one inference identifies the estimated country.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for estimating, by a client computing device, a country in which the computing device is configured to operate, the computer program executable by a processor, the computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

gathering a set of system settings that does not expressly identify a country in which the client computing device operates;

sending the gathered set of system settings to a server in order to allow the server to use country estimation programming instructions to estimate a particular country as the country in which the client computing device operates;

receiving, from the server, digital data related to a group of products that the server automatically identifies as associated with the particular country by applying the server'"'"'s automatic estimation of the particular country to the set of system settings, wherein the group of products is selected by excluding products that are not associated with the particular country from a set of products that are associated with a plurality of countries; and

displaying, on an electronic display device, the digital data related to the group of products.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for receiving, from the server, information indicating a group of data formats that the server automatically identifies as associated with the particular country by applying the server'"'"'s automatic estimation of the particular country to the set of system settings, wherein the group of data formats is selected by excluding data formats that are not associated with the particular country from a set of data formats that are associated with a plurality of countries.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the set of data formats comprises a plurality of currency types associated with the plurality of countries, wherein the group of data formats comprises a currency type associated with the particular country.

13. A method performed by a client computing device for estimating a country where the client computing device is configured to operate, the method comprising:

receiving, from a server, country estimation programming for automatically estimating a particular country as the country in which the client computing device operates based on a set of configuration settings;

gathering the set of configuration settings of the client computing device;

estimating the particular country as the country in which the client computing device operates by applying the received country estimation programming to the gathered set of configuration settings;

sending country information indicating the particular country as the country in which the client computing device operates to the server;

receiving, from the server, digital data related to a group of products that the server automatically identifies as associated with the particular country, wherein the group of products is selected by excluding products that are not associated with the particular country from a set of products that are associated with a plurality of countries; and

displaying, on an electronic display device, the digital data related to the group of products.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising receiving, at the client computing device, a plurality of rules for estimating the particular country from the server, wherein at least one rule in the plurality of rules comprises an antecedent and an inference, wherein the inference is determined if the antecedent is determined to be true, wherein the country estimation programming comprises a rule engine that processes the plurality of rules to estimate the particular country.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein at least one inference identifies the particular country.

16. A method performed by a set of servers for estimating a country in which a computing device operates, the method comprising:

receiving, from the computing device, system setting information of the computing device that does not expressly identify the country in which the computing device operates;

using the system setting information to identify a particular country as the country in which the computing device operates; and

identifying, from a set of data associated with a plurality of countries, a subset of data that is associated with the identified particular country by excluding data that is not associated with the particular country from the set of data.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the set of data comprises different products that are available in different countries in the plurality of countries, wherein the subset of data comprises only products that are available in the identified particular country.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising sending, from the server to the computing device, digital data related to the subset of data associated with the identified particular country.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the set of data comprises a set of data formats that are associated with different countries in the plurality of countries, wherein the subset of data comprises only data formats that are available in the identified particular country.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the set of data formats comprises different measurement units, wherein the different measurement units comprise inch and centimeter.